A Qantas jumbo jet flying from Los Angeles to Australia was guided into New Zealand by another airliner after its weather radar failed over the Pacific Ocean, the airline said on Oct. 30.

The faulty weather radar was discovered on the Boeing 747-400 flight QF12 carrying nearly 300 passengers a few hours after it left Los Angeles on the night of Oct. 27, a spokesman said.

"An Air New Zealand flight was a short distance ahead and it provided the Qantas aircraft with information from its own radar system throughout the journey," he told AFP.

New Zealand television reported that the Air New Zealand flight was 35 kilometres (22 miles) away from the Qantas plane when the captain made radio contact asking for assistance.

New Zealand's Boeing 747 then flew 1,000 metres (1,100 yards) off the Qantas plane's port wing, relaying weather updates, and guided it into Auckland Airport on the morning of Oct. 29, TVNZ said.

Passengers awoke to sunrise over Auckland and the announcement the flight had been diverted, passenger Sean Lygo told the broadcaster.

"The captain was fantastic, he allowed us to sleep all night and we were unaware of any real problems.

"I sat there and thought about it for a while and it's not exactly pleasant to imagine flying blind across the Pacific, but we are here and everybody is safe."

The faulty radar antenna was repaired in Auckland and the flight arrived in Sydney four hours late on Oct. 29, the spokesman said, adding that the passengers had been in no danger.

The incident is the latest in a series of in-air dramas that has plagued Australia's national flag-carrier in recent months.

In October, a computer glitch caused a Qantas plane to plunge into a 200-metre nosedive, injuring more than 70 people, with some suffering broken bones.

In July, a mid-air blast caused by an exploding oxygen bottle punched a hole in the side of a Qantas Boeing 747-400 during a flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne. No one was injured in the incident.